“Kirkland has been promoted to Commodore,” she said and added, “Oh and tell him to send some people back that can repair and operate a battle destroyer.”
“I will Ma’am,” Mike said.
“Good luck, Lieutenant, and watch out for those destroyers that escaped,” she said as she terminated the link before he could reply.
“Mister Pitt, take us to this system’s Beta gravity well and let’s see if we can beat Granny Essex to Austro Prime,” he said.
“Aye sir,” Jeremy replied increasing speed as they headed to the gravity well.
Bending out of the system they all knew that it might be a long time before they were back this way again.
Several quick bends put them closer to the 34th Attack Fleet’s line of advance. It all depended on how much time Essex took refueling and passing from gravity well to gravity well. After another ten days, they reached a system that Mike had determined was where they could cross the fleet’s path. If he found them then all well and good, if not he’d head on without them and be even happier for it.
Bending in, his maser operator started calling out readings of ships in the system.
“Sir, it is the 34th,” Curtis said not especially happy to see them.
Mike nodded without smiling, he really didn’t need to see Commodore Essex but part of him wanted to rub his smug face in the fact that he restored the Goliad, fought a battle and still managed to catch them.
“Hail them,” he said looking to his comm. operator.
A moment later, Commander Hemmings smiling black face looked at him from across the main viewer.
“Will wonders never cease?” he said happy to see his godson.
“Sorry we’re late,” he said breaking his stoic expression and smiling back at his father’s best friend.
“What took you so long?”
“Well, I had to steal a crew, put the Goliad back together, fight a battle alongside 8th Defense Fleet against a Karduan Squadron and then repair the Goliad and figure out a shortcut to catch up with the 34th,” he explained in a long breath.
“I’m sure your arrival will make the Commodore’s whole day,” he said.
“Where is he?” he asked not seeing him or Captain LaFevers on the bridge.
Rick Hemmings almost shrugged in indifference but caught himself.
“Pallas, where is Commodore Essex and Captain LaFevers?” he asked the ship’s A.I. computer.
“The Commodore is in his quarter’s asleep and Captain LaFevers is in the officer’s club at the bar,” the supercomputer said.
Mike didn’t know what schedule they were operating on but standard Confederation duty time put it at 1300 hours in the afternoon.
“I’ll tell them when they are more available that you and the Goliad have reported in,” Hemmings said electing not to disturb them.
“Thanks,” Mike said trying not to sound too disappointed.
“Do you need anything?” the XO of the battle carrier asked.
“Just fuel,” he replied.
“Well, get in line we’re all refueling whether we need it or not,” Commander Hemmings informed.
“Yes, sir,” Collins answered knowing that refueling every bend was probably one reason why he had managed to catch up with them.
“Good to have you back,” Hemmings said.
“Thanks, sir,” he replied as the signal cut out.
“Mister Pitt, put us in line to refuel at the gas giant,” he said getting up from his chair, “Oh and you have the bridge.”
“Aye sir,” the pilot answered.
Leaving the bridge, he went directly to his shoe box of an office. Closing the door, he reached behind his right ear and tapped his subdermal implant. Waiting a minute, he repeated the signal as he paced back and forth in the small room.
“Mike, are you reading me?” the A.I. voice said sounding in his head.
“Yep, just turn down your gain a little,” he said trying to reduce the echoing effect.
“How’s that?” Pal said.
“Much better,” the young officer replied sitting down behind his desk.
“Good to hear from you,” the A.I. said sounding honestly happy to speak to his friend again.
“You too, before we catch up I have updates from Admiral Dupain as well as reports from the battle we fought. I want you to pass them onto Commander Hemmings,” he instructed.
“May I ask why you didn’t give them to him yourself?”
“I wanted him to get them without anyone else knowing,” Mike said truthfully.
“Understood,” the A.I. responded.
“I’m also sending you updates from Admiral Dupain to pass onto Commodore Essex. Be advised that two Karduan Standard Destroyers escaped the battle. They exited the system using the Beta Well and could be somewhere between Hanson’s World and Austro Prime,” he said knowing full well with so many bend points along the way they could really be anywhere. It all depended on where they were going and where they might find help.
“I’ll get it to the Commodore as soon as he wakes and to the Captain after he leaves the O Club,” Pal stated already having absorbed the information that Mike had downloaded to him.
“So, sleeping in the middle of the day and drinking at the officers’ club after lunch is what senior officers do now?” Mike inquired.
“That and move as slowly to the front as possible,” the supercomputer said admitting to what he had already guessed.
It wasn’t worth pursuing but was troubling. Instead, the two friends caught up on what had happened in the weeks since they had last seen each other.
When Commodore Essex awoke from his nap he made a sour face at the news. It was a real surprise that this young Lieutenant, who had been a thorn in his side had actually repaired the old frigate let alone that he had joined the 8th Defense Fleet in defeating the enemy’s blocking squadron. Of course, they had let two destroyers escape and he was sure that the Admiralty would hear of that failure. In fact, he could guarantee that they would.
In reward for all of this, the Goliad was assigned to the rear of the fleet. There the fleet’s six transport and supply ships, its hospital ship - the ISS Mary Walker and an old escort carrier called the ISS Boyington followed behind the main force.
The two Planetary Assault Ships, the ISS Lee and ISS Burnsides were up near the middle of the fleet. These PAS were relatively new ships and unlike the slow freighters and older ships of the rear, they could keep pace with the modern attack fleet.
Mike was immediately concerned that an enemy force bending in behind them would find only a sole frigate guarding the most vulnerable ships of the fleet.
Since reaching this system Granny Essex had a choice of continuing on his original wide route of bending to systems and working the long way around to Austro Prime or taking a more direct line of bends.
To everyone’s surprise, the Commodore now took the more direct route. Perhaps something from Admiral Dupain had lit a fire under him but if so no one was saying. For the first time, the fleet moved at maximum impulse from the gas giant, heading back to the system’s sole gravity well. This, of course, left the ships of the rear lagging far behind.
The Goliad with her new fusion drives could have easily run to the front of the fleet but her job was to guard the rear so she was the last ship in the group.
Bending to the next uninhabited system the rear of the fleet struggled to keep up and went through the well as a separate group. Reaching the next system, they found the main body of the fleet was already halfway to the second gravity well. They’d needed to use this far well to get to the next system on their route.
“Open a channel to the Pallas,” Mike said not really wanting to contact the flagship but feeling he had to.
“What do you want?” Essex demanded as his face filled the Goliad’s viewer,
“Sir, the ships in the rear are falling behind. At this rate, you’ll bend out an hour and forty-five minutes before we can reach the gravity well,” he infor
med feeling like he was pointing out the obvious.
“I know that just stay on course and bend to the next system as soon as you can. After all, we are behind the new front,” he ordered with a smug grimace and then cut off the signal.
Mike shook his head and watched as the rest of fleet increased speed and entered the gravity well almost two hours before he and the rear ships could even reach the bend point.
“Specialist Ryan, have the ships of the rear form up on us. I want the Mary Walker to move to the center with the cargo ships three to each of her sides. The ISS Boyington is to bring up the rear of the diamond,” he ordered taking command and then continued, “I want each ship to report in with their flank speed as well as their top sustainable speed.”
“Aye sir,” the comm. operator acknowledged.
The transport ships didn’t even argue and moved into position complying with his orders. The captain of the Mary Walker was a Lt. Commander who was also a physician and he was perfectly happy moving his lightly armored ship into a more defensive formation. The escort carrier’s captain was a different story. He was a full lieutenant just like Mike and when he got his orders he wanted to discuss them with this frigate captain.
When Collins got his call, he had Ryan put him on hold, letting him stew a little before speaking to him.
“On screen,” Mike finally said.
“Aye sir,” came the reply.
The screen showed the bridge of the old escort carrier.
The bridge was a familiar one to Mike as he had once commanded the Nathanael Greene an escort carrier of the same class as Boyington. The difference was that the Nathanael Greene had been totally renovated from before her capture. After the Karduans had seized her they even installed new bender drives so that the escort carrier could be used by them for fleet actions. The Boyington’s bridge, on the other hand, looked rundown and had definitely had not gone through a refit and modernization overhaul. Mike took all of this in as the escort carrier’s captain spoke.
“I’m Lt. Howard, Captain of the Boyington,” he said introducing himself. He was at least five or six years older than Mike, right at the age that you should be to be a full lieutenant.
“Nice to meet you, so what can I do for you,” Collins asked noticing that the carrier captain didn’t have pilot wings on his uniform.
“Well, you issued orders moving all of the ships around and I’m not sure that you are the ranking officer?” he stated.
Mike smirked a little thinking that he was going to have another what’s your date of rank weenie to deal with.
“I believe the commander of the Mary Walker outranks both of us but I don’t think he is a combat officer,” he said pointing out the facts.
“But who put you in charge?” Howard pressed.
“Did Commodore Essex contact you and place you in charge of the rear?” he asked.
“Ah … no,” the carrier officer answered.
“Well, he gave me orders to stay on course, bend when we reached the gravity well and catch up with them on the other side,” Mike informed and added, “Being these orders came to me and not you I would think that I’m in charge.”
Howard looked at him for a minute in mute silence.
Collins, on the other hand, took this moment to move in for the kill.
“My ship is a refitted and improved frigate whereas your escort carrier appears to be right out of mothballs. Therefore, I have the superior ship and the regs say that in a combat situation the captain with the superior ship is the ranking officer.
“But?” Lt. Howard mumbled still processing all of this.
“I suppose that I could relinquish command to you if you could prove to me that you have more battle experience than I have. So, tell me how many battles have you fought in?” he inquired trying to sound reasonable.
“I’ve only been in one battle and that was a skirmish two years ago,” he admitted.
“Right,” Mike said with a nod.
Howard broke eye contact for a moment whether he was embarrassed or just couldn’t hold his stare any longer. Looking down he saw Mike’s Knight’s Spur ring on his left hand. Raising his gaze back up he took in what he had been missing a set of pilot’s wings and a commando badge on the young frigate captain’s uniform.
“What are your orders, sir?” the carrier captain finally said.
“Move up and close the rear, I’ll take point and we’ll get these ships to the next system together,” he ordered.
“Aye, sir,” Lt. Howard said and closed the channel.
Mister Pitt turned around in his chair and looked at his captain.
“Damn, sir! I never want to cross you,” the pilot said thinking of what this young officer had done in the last few weeks all starting with the beating of the prison bully.
“I’d rather be in charge than have someone with no experience calling the shots,” Mike commented feeling that he was justified in his actions.
“The Boyington has moved up to the rear of the diamond,” PO2 Curtis said from behind his new maser station.
“Good, signal the group that we are moving to the well in formation,” he said watching the holo-map as the rear of the 34th Attack Fleet limped along to the gravity well at the best speed of their slowest ship.
Reaching the well, they polarized their hulls and on signal entered the bend point together for the next system.
Jumping into the next star system they found themselves in another lifeless system. It was on the normal bend route and was often called the “Garden System” because of all of its different and colorful planetary bodies as well as other celestial anomalies it had. Of course, the one thing it was lacking was an M Class planet capable of supporting life.
The system’s star had a Class M red dwarf sun, which were the most common in the universe. It was smaller and cooler than the Earth’s Class G yellow sun. The closest planet to the red dwarf was very close and was a world of molten lava. The system also had a hydrogen-helium Saturn type gas giant that glowed an almost eerie purple against the dark space around it.
A dozen dwarf planets also occupied this region of space, half of them being rock worlds that were closer to the star and the other half being ice worlds at the outer half of the system. A rusting metal world added a red hue to the star-scape being reminiscent of Mars. Along with these planets was a dark world that was unique in that it was made of the pulverized dust of metallic rocks. The small planetoid must have had a heavy iron or large nickel core to create the necessary gravity hold it all together.
In addition, there was a gas dwarf or a mini-Neptune. Even though it was called a dwarf it was still eight times the mass and twice the radius of Earth. It also had what the sensors read as a surface covered in liquid hydrogen-helium. A white-gray ice giant orbited two thirds out from the sun to the furthest planet and was mostly of oxygen, carbon and sulfur with less than twenty percent hydrogen.
The most unusual feature was a small nebula-like cloud of radioactive gasses. It was by no means a true and massive nebula but it did span an area covering the size of a planetary expanse. It was in some ways more of reflective nebulas in that its dust reflected the light of the red dwarf star, casting it in an eerie washed out blood color. Two dozen moons orbited the various planets along with thousands of smaller satellites and asteroids that covered the system.
It was an interesting and beautiful star system covered in a multitude of colors but what was most interesting about the “Garden System” was that they were all alone.
“Where the hell is the 34th Attack Fleet?” Mike questioned jumping from his captain’s chair and rushing over to the maser and sensor stations.
Petty Officer Cindy Baker gasped a little having looked up to see her commanding officer almost turn into a blur with a sudden burst of speed. She quickly gained control of her surprise remembering that he was hardwired, but it was sure fast.
“They’re not here,” PO2 Curtis said shaking his head as he looked at his screen.
&nb
sp; Mike looked down at the maser controls and tied them into the holo-map. A second later the readings floated above their heads.
“Open a channel to the Boyington and the Mary Walker,” he said pausing for a moment before continuing, “Ask them to confirm our readings.”
He then went back to his chair and brought up the operations order opening it to the movement section and the Frago that changed their route. Reading several times, he was sure that he was where he was supposed to be.
“Sensor sweep the area of the gravity well, that many fusion drives might have left something for us to follow,” he said needing more facts.
“Sir, the Mary Walker and the Boyington are also reporting no sign of the 34th,” Ryan announced.
“Captain, sensors have found evidence that the fleet was here but that they must have bended back out right away,” PO2 Curtis reported.
“They didn’t even wait for us,” Ensign Pitt said in disgust.
“Essex must have a bug under him to be moving this fast,” Mike commented wondering if he was also going at the fleet’s maximum bend range. If he was then they’d never be able to catch them.
“Sir, one of the older transports is requesting to refuel,” the comm. operator said.
“Order all ships to deploy ram scoops and set a course for the gas giant,” he said not liking that the main body of the fleet had basically abandoned them.
He wondered if this was another ploy of the Commodore’s to get at him. He couldn’t believe that he’d risk nine ships, six of them full of valuable supplies and a hospital ship just to disgrace him. Maybe if the supplies didn’t get through Granny Essex thought that he wouldn’t have to fight? He continued to wonder about this as they further entered the Garden System and made their way to refuel.
Two hours later they approached the big purple gas giant. It looked like a big beautiful glowing plum as they closed in on it.
“Sir, sensor contact,” Curtis sang out disturbing the quiet of bridge.
“What and where?” Mike replied needing details.
“I’m reading a Karduan Destroyer and a Destroyer Escort coming around from the far side of the gas giant.
Wolves at the Gate Page 25
